Fantasy Football Today - FFT in 5: Bounceback Candidates! Deshaun Watson, Mark Andrews, Calvin Ridley, and More! (05/26 Fantasy Football podcast)

Episode Date: May 26, 2023

Does Calvin Ridley count as a bounce-back candidate for 2023? Chris Towers and Dan Schneier talk it through and discuss their favorite bounce backs for this season.  You can also follow the full-length Fantasy Football Today podcast here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-podcast/id261735167 Get 20% off Fantasy Football Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-football-today%20?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-football-collection Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @ctowerscbs. You can listen to Fantasy Football Today in 5 on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today in 5 podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today in 5 podcast." Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Metrolinks and Crosslinks are reminding everyone to be careful as Eglinton Crosstown LRT train testing is in progress. Please be alert as trains can pass at any time on the tracks. Remember to follow all traffic signals. Be careful along our tracks and only make left turns where it's safe to do so. Be alert, be aware, and stay safe. Let's talk bounce back candidates for the 2023 NFL season. Next on Fantasy Football Today in 5. Welcome to FFT in 5. I'm Chris Towers. I'm here with Dan Schneier.

We're talking about bounce back candidates for the 2023 Fantasy Football season. And let's set some parameters, alright? No young guys who haven't done it before. No guys that you don't really believe in. Here's a question, though. We'll start it off with this one, because I think this was maybe the first guy you and I both thought of when we talked about bounce backs before the show. Does Calvin Ridley count as a bounce back candidate? He is 29 years old. He is a former elite wide receiver. We also have not seen him play at that level since 2020. So it's going on three years now, but he was suspended last year. Does Calvin Ridley count

as a bounce back candidate? I'm counting him, Chris. I'm counting him because when you drafted him in his last most recent season, you got screwed, you know, like you got killed by that. And so that those there, anytime you have somebody who disappointed, I think can be considered at least if we're not considering the young guys, he's older, so he can be considered in this regard. And I'm really loving Calvin Ridley this year. I'm going to have to be competing against all our guys. I hope Adam's already showing signs of being interested in early max.

I don't love that because Calvin really, to me is one of my favorite receiver targets already. Um, and I love how he's looked in camp to where we're in number zero. Now it looks even if I think he's wearing zero. I don't love that because Calvin really, to me, is one of my favorite receiver targets already. And I love how he's looked in camp to where we're in number zero. Now, I think he's wearing zero. Now it looks even faster in the zero. So that's kind of just a joke right there. But I do think he's going to really mesh well with what Trevor Lawrence does well from a skill set standpoint in the deep passing game. Yeah, he is wide receiver 17 for me.

And honestly, I could pretty easily move him up a couple more spots from there depending on the reports we get out of camp so that's an interesting one let's go position by position give me a quarterback bounce back candidate this is the one i've been on all off season going to continue to be on it's to sean watson i just think last year was a weird year for him and i love everything cleveland has done to really build weapons around him i'm an eli more fan i think he's awesome i cedric tillman to me was one of the better receivers in this class and the only receiver who had size, a size component as well.

So I just really like his receiver core, David Joku as well. I like the offensive line. I like the idea that they're going to be more pass first this year. And so it's really just up to Watson. Can he get back to where he was? And I think with a full off season, he can get back there.

Yeah, it's an interesting question it's a an impossible one to answer because he basically didn't play for two years you know playing with a new team coming off you know not playing for the first 11 games of last season there was just a lot working against him but you know he's only 25 I think so they're still you know in his physical prime I think about betting on a bounce back makes sense he's only 25, I think. So they're still, you know, in his physical prime. I think betting on a bounce back makes sense. He's like QB 12 for me. And that's one where, again, he could move up pretty quickly if we get good reports.

Let's get a running back bounce back candidate. I'm going to go DeAndre Swift for the Eagles trade to four. Look, he's still being drafted really late. I see him now being drafted in the RB 28 range. I mean, at that point, like you're just, that's you're not getting anyone with upside that he has, in my opinion, at that point, you're talking about players like Herbert, who's in a massive timeshare, Brian Robinson, who's in a timeshare, doesn't do anything in the passing game. Rashad white on a terrible team, probably going to end up in more of a timeshare than people think,

right? Rashad Penny is, is in that range as well. But I think Swift is a better overall talent than Rashad Penny and a much better, more likely player to stay healthier than Penny is at this stage of their career. So I just think you're getting more upside there with Swift behind the best offensive line in football in an offense that scores a ton of points and is in the red zone all the time.

Then you're going to get for most of the running backs in that range. Who would you rather have? DeAndre Swift or the new Lions backfield, David Montgomery and Jameer Gibbs? I think I still probably take Gibbs over him for the upside. Montgomery versus Swift is a more interesting one,

and I think I would lean Swift based on the offense. I've got them 23, 24, and 25. Okay, so you're a little lower on Gibbs, I think, than consensus. Yeah, maybe a little bit lower. I think that's going to be a split, and I'm not sure he dominates the passing game work. Let's move on to wide receiver.

Who's a bounce back besides Calvin Ridley? So wide receiver is an interesting one. I was digging through this. I didn't find anyone I loved as a potential bounce back. Michael Pittman's an interesting one just because of, obviously, the team that he plays for, and we're hoping that we can get something going there on that front. So I'm going to go here with, this is a tough one for me, Chris. I think I'm going to just go Debo Samuel here. I was thinking about this a little bit more, uh, you know, you know, actually I take that back.

I'm going to on air. I'm going to make a change here. I'm going to go Brandon cooks because Brandon cooks to me still look good from the little bit of film I watched of them last year, as far as getting open and creating separation. And to me, it was just a quarterback problem there in Houston. Now that quarterback is massively upgrade with Dak Prescott in Dallas. And so I'm going to go with Brandon cooks here. Yeah. I would also point out just both chargers, wide receivers, Keenan Allen and Mike Williams. I like us bounce back candidates, you know, Keenan Allen, a little bit older, the hamstring injuries last year a little concerning but i just i think there's room for that offense to take a huge step forward with kellen morris as

the offensive coordinator and real quick let's get a tight end bounce back candidate i think there's one obvious one uh well the obvious one might be mark andrews yes okay so we'll go with mark andrews here He is the obvious one. Just a health thing for him, I think, at this point. And I think there's a chance that the new Monk in offense is going to be good for everyone involved, and that includes Mark Andrews. So I think he's a great bounce back.

Yeah, there's been a lot of talk about they're going to pass the ball more, they're going to be a little more fast-paced. So that's what everyone says during OTAs about their new offense. But in this case, because we've seen Mark Andrews be the number one tight end, I think batting on a bounce back makes a lot of sense. And that's going to do it for FFT in five. We'll be back next week. We'll see you then.